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Hayleys rewards top business partners
The top 40 business partners of Hayleys Consumer Products Ltd were recently rewarded with cruises down the Nile and holidays in Singapore, Bangkok and at local resorts for their support in promoting the company’s products.

The seven top dealers of the company were rewarded with a Nile cruise for seven nights including air travel to and from the port of departure. Nine others won all inclusive packages to Singapore/Bangkok for four nights, ten received Bangkok/Pattaya packages for four nights, and 14 were presented with local weekend packages.

Speaking at the Partners’ Day, Hayleys Consumer Director Rizvi Zaheed stressed that the support of high performing dealers was essential especially since the company is promoting a new range of Philips high-end products which promises a whole new home entertainment experience.

The Philips high-end range unveiled to a gathering of over 250 dealers at the Partners Day included High definition plasma television receivers, ‘giant screen’ projection TVs, high definition flat screen TVs, home cinema systems and Digital Video Disk (DVD) players.

Regional preferential trade deal mooted
The business forum meeting of BIMST-EC, which groups Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand, has recommended expediting a Preferential Trade Agreement among its member states leading to a Free Trade Agreement for promoting and facilitating trade and investment.

It also recommended setting up an Interim Secretariat at the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka and to use multilateral assistance for funding. These decisions were taken at the BIMST-EC Business Forum Meeting held on 15-16 December 2002 in Colombo hosted by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka in association with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka.

The meeting was attended by participants from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand, the chamber said. The Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ravi Karunanayake inaugurated the meeting. He stressed the need to strengthen the role of the Chamber and offered to host a Secretariat for BIMST-EC in Sri Lanka.

He was of the view that we should go direct into a Free Trade Agreement rather than spend time on a PTA. The forum also decided to formulate and set targets and an action plan with modalities for monitoring and as a follow up mechanism to hold regular meetings, and set up tele-conferencing and video-conferencing focal points to communicate through the Secretariat as regularly as possible.

It also decided to recommend establishing a BIMST- EC Chamber of Commerce and Industry and to encourage investment in services such as education, health, tourism and transportation.

The private sector in each country should identify projects based on needs and opportunities. The Forum decided to hold meetings and Business Conventions on a regular and rotation basis. The First Business Convention will be held in Sri Lanka in August 2003.

In his address, Asoka Gunasekera, President of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, stressed the need for follow up action and implementation of projects speedily. U. Tun Aung, the Executive Committee Member of the Union of Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representing the current Chairman of the BIMST-EC Business Forum said that increased cooperation and coordination among BIMST-EC countries would facilitate trade and investment thereby improving the accessibility of resources and markets.

Tun Aung proposed from the Chair that Chandra Embuldeniya be elected the Chairman of BIMST-EC Business Forum for the current term. In his address, Chandra Embuldeniya, the Immediate Past President of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, and the Chairman, BIMST-EC Business Forum of Sri Lanka, emphasized the aims and purposes as enunciated in the Bangkok Declaration in 1996 and reiterated the use of a project based approach to move forward.

He also stated that in the Ministerial Declarations released earlier they have commended the setting up of a BIMST-EC Chamber of Commerce and the setting up of a Free Trade Area or a Preferential Trade Agreement in the intermediary stage.

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